Four Items of Interest

Is a good metaphor for the web the cosmologist's Big Bang theory? If so, what was the ignition point and time? How many fractions of a second are we into the explosive formation of the webverse?

Here are four items you may find of interest:

  1. North Korea is now on the web: http://www.kcna.co.jp
    A few short weeks ago they were an all caps site. They are making rapid progress. It is interesting to see that they are trying to attract with PULL rather than the usual push of a broadcast medium.

  2. A great band width black hole is being opened by spiders that grab pages for screen savers - even if you are NOT there to see them!

    http://www.kk-sec.co.jp/secint/english/Flashnavi/index.htm
    [download at your own risk as it takes over parts of your machine.]

  3. If you collect stats, an interesting way to look at your participation is as follows:
    r divided by i^2/3 (that's to the 2/3rds power)
    where r = number of clicks on a link, or "impressions"
    and i = the number of times a link is presented as a choice - ie. how often is an advertisement displayed to a set of eye balls?
    This method seems to track the way the web is scaling.

  4. If you knew the top 20 searches on all of the free text search engines, would you have a snap shot of the collective web-mind's interests? How might this shape product development? Editorial content? Political policy formation?

    Should we archive the top twenty questions once every week to watch the web-mind evolve? Currently, the top 20 seem to indicate why the sex sites are making money.

14 March 97